The Legend of the Condor Heroes

As Peng Lianhu, Sha Tongtian and the others heard his name, they bowed and sang their praises, "For a long time Mr. Ouyang is the Mount Tai and the Big Dipper [meaning 'ultimate'] of the Wulin world; today we are fortunate to finally meet you." Ouyang Feng slightly bowed, returning their respect half-heartedly.

The 'da shou yin' Venerable Lingzhi came from Tibet, he did not know the Western Poison's reputation; he merely put his palms together without saying anything.

Wanyan Honglie knew that Sha Tongtian and the others were conceited men, they always looked down towards others; but he noticed they were very respectful toward Ouyang Feng almost to the point of fear and heaped him with flattering words, and their faces looked very unusual. Wanyan Honglie realized that this swollen man with disheveled hair and bare feet was not an ordinary person; immediately he treated Ouyang Feng with respect and uttered some polite words.

Among these people, Liang Ziweng was the only one with different feeling. Guo Jing had drunk the valuable blood of his precious viper; now that they saw each other, how could he not feel angry? But he noticed that the person he was most afraid of, Hong Qigong, was with Guo Jing. So even though he was very angry, he managed to keep a smiling face. He went forward and bowed respectfully, "The little Liang Ziweng greets Clan Leader Hong, wishing you, Senior well."

His speech had startled everybody else; they have heard the stellar reputation of the Western Poison and the Northern Beggar for a long time, but they have never met them in person. Who would have expected that two of the biggest names of the martial art world actually made their appearance at the same time? They were about to rush forward and pay their respects when Hong Qigong laughed big and said, "The Old Beggar is having a very bad luck, a vicious dog has bitten me half dead and half alive, what are you paying respect for? It's better for you to bring me something to eat."

Everybody was startled, they thought, "This Hong Qigong only laying down motionless, turned out he is severely injured. We don't have anything to fear, then." They looked at Ouyang Feng, wanted to see what he was going to do.

Early on Ouyang Feng had cooked up a plan on how to get rid of these three people: Hong Qigong must be eliminated first to avoid his own lowly behavior to be publicly known; next, he would force Guo Jing to explain the difficult sentences from the manual, and then he would execute him. As for Huang Rong, although his nephew loved her, if he left her alive, she would bring enormous disaster in the future. However, if he personally killed her, Huang Yaoshi would not let him have a single moment of peace. Therefore, he wanted to borrow someone else's hand to have her killed thus shifting the blame from his own shoulders. Presently these three were aboard the boat, thus he was not afraid they would fly to the sky to escape. He stepped forward and said to Wanyan Honglie, "These three people are very crafty; they are also highly skilled in martial arts. I beseech the Prince to assign some people to guard them well."

Liang Ziweng was very pleased; he leaned to the left and squeezed through Sha Tongtian to grab Guo Jing's hand. Guo Jing turned his wrist over and slapped Liang Ziweng's shoulder. It was the 'seeing dragon in the field'; a swift and heavy stance; even though Liang Ziweng's martial art skill was high, unexpectedly he was forced to stagger back two steps.

Peng Lianhu and Liang Ziweng were continually in competition to win favor in the presence of Wanyan Honglie. They always wanted to outdo the other; their faces were different from their hearts. Seeing Liang Ziweng stumble, Peng Lianhu was secretly very pleased. He stepped forward to surround Hong Qigong and the others; but he waited for Liang Ziweng to fall flat before making any action.

When Liang Ziweng squeezed through Sha Tongtian's side to pull Guo Jing away; he was prepared against Guo Jing's single stance of the Proud Dragon Repents; he knew he would not be able to block it head on, hence the sideways attack. Who would have thought that in less than a month the Proud Dragon Repents was not the only one Guo Jing knew? Seeing Guo Jing did not pursue, he jumped up and attacked with his fists, launching his lifelong trained martial art, the 'liao dong ye hu quan fa' [wild fox from Liaodong fist technique]; determined to take Guo Jing's life, both for embarrassing him just now, also for killing his precious snake in the past.

One time Liang Ziweng went to pick ginseng on Mount Changbai [located in Jilin province]; he saw a hound was fighting with a wild fox on the snow. The fox was very cunning, it leaped to the east and hopped to the west, very quick and agile. Although the hound's claws and teeth were sharp, after battling for a long time it had not scored victory yet. Liang Ziweng noticed the ability of the fox to jump very high; he got a sudden inspiration. He abandoned his intention to pick ginseng and decided to stay inside a thatched hut on the deep snowy mountain, painstakingly pondering martial art moves for several months. As a result, the 'wild fox fist technique' was born.

The technique incorporates four fundamental principles, namely 'ling' [alert/quick], 'shan' [dodge], 'pu' [pounce], and 'die' [tumble]. This technique had come in handy in dealing with powerful enemies of his. First of all, he did not give the enemy any opportunity to catch him as he was very quick to retreat, as he was able to hasten to the left and escape to the right; and then struck back as opportunity arose.

This time he did not dare to underestimate his opponent anymore and launched this fist technique right away. His attacks were lightning fast as he threw everything he got on Guo Jing. The fist technique was weird, Guo Jing had never seen anything like it before. He thought, "In Rong'er's 'luo ying shen jian zhang' [falling leaves divine sword palm technique] there are many trick moves; out of five attacks only one is real; or perhaps one out of eight. But seems like this old man's fists are all empty strikes. I wonder what kind of strange technique is this?" However, he still remembered Hong Qigong's advice that regardless of the technique his opponent was using, all he needed to do was to keep fighting using the 18-Dragon Subduing Palms.

After watching these two men fighting for a while, everybody started to silently shake their heads, thinking, "The Old Freak Liang can be considered a grand master of martial art; how come in fighting this new born kid he keeps moving around and does not dare to attack head on?"

Several moves later Guo Jing's palm strength started to push him back step by step; looked like very soon he would fall into the ocean. Realizing his 'wild fox fist' would not help him scoring the victory, Liang Ziweng was thinking of using a different set of fist technique; but it was too late. Guo Jing's palms had enveloped him completely, did not give him any chance to counterattack.

Amidst the strong gusts of wind Hong Qigong's voice was heard, "Attack the lower part!"

Guo Jing immediately launched the stance 'zhan long zai ye' [exhausted battling dragon] and his left arm swept away. Liang Ziweng cried out in alarm and tumbled down over the edge of the boat.

Everybody was stunned and rushed forward to the edge to watch, only to hear somebody on the sea laugh a long laugh. Suddenly Liang Ziweng's body flew back up and with a loud grunt he fell straight back to the deck, unconscious.

What had just happened confounded everybody on board. Could it be that the sea water bounced his body back up? Everybody crowded by the edge of the boat, looking down to the sea below, only to see an old man with white beard and white hair rushing to the east and dashing to the west on the surface of the sea with an unusual speed. They strained their eyes to see more clearly; turned out that man was riding on the back of a huge shark, with a speed not inferior to those riding on horseback galloping on dry land.